Utah Snowboarders Sue Over Resort’s Skier-Only Policy

Skiers in Albion Basin at Alta Ski Resort in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah USA with Superior Peak in the background.

UIG via Getty Images

Snowboarders and skiers are the dogs and cats of winter sports: they inhabit the same turf, but don’t always get along.

Tensions between the camps have now spilled into federal court.

On Wednesday, a group of snowboarders sued the Alta Ski Lifts Company, which operates the Alta ski resort in Utah, one of a handful of resorts in the U.S that doesn’t allow snowboarders, only skiers.

The allegation: the snowboard ban at Alta, which operates on federally owned land, violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“Discrimination without any rational basis perpetuates inequality by creating, fostering, and encouraging skier-versus-snowboarder attitudes that are hostile and divisive,” reads the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.

The lawsuit asks for Alta’s snowboard ban to be lifted, and for skiers to be forced to share the mountain.

A spokeswoman for Alta did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on Thursday.

The lawsuit also names the United States Forest Service, which controls the public land on which Alta operates. A spokesman for the USFS did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Only seven percent of ski resorts in the U.S. allowed snowboarders in the 1980s, but by 1990, most major ski areas “allowed snowboarding and welcomed snowboarders,” according to the lawsuit.

Only a few, including Alta, Deer Valley in Utah and Mad River Glen in Vermont, remain skiers-only.

Jonathan Schofield, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the same constitutional standards don’t apply to Deer Valley and Mad River Glen, which operate on private land.

“Alta’s anti-snowboarder policy and snowboarding ban is based on antiquated stigmas and stereotypes that snowboarders are immature, inexperienced, reckless, disrespectful and/or ‘out of control,’ reads the complaint. “Such interests are never legitimate.”

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